Bud-Rice #16 Revisited

OK, the joke is on me. The Bud-Rice taste like a cereal box. I shouldn't be surprised as it has Cap'n Crunch in it. What to do with 5 gallons of swill? I know. I can blend it with 2 lbs of crystal and 2lbs of rye, 2 more oz of hops and a pack of Safale US-05.

And so I ran a mini batch the other night. I tell you, working in smaller quantities is a lot easier. It has given me the idea of revisiting Batch #6. I will use a grain bag to mash and rinse and it will be a lot easier. Might even use a hop bag to put the Galena bittering hops in. This way the bitter won't overpower the flavor and aroma.

So I processed the batch and then go on-line to  review the crystal specs and it says the crystal has no enzymes in it. Now what, Joke number two? Not to worry. That sucker was bubbling away like it was made with two row.

Bud-Rice Fixer

 PDB has my two air traps so a Mason jar will have  to do.

While I was at the shop the other day I picked up this present with some of Mother's birthday money. In ~15 minutes this guy had the wort down to ~85 deg F with a very low water flow rate. It is a thing of beauty. You also get to experience heat exchanger fouling first hand. It you don't keep the wort agitated, the water temp drops of quickly.

Wort Chiller

I also grabbed a bottle rinser. Pics next time I bottle. Then I returned to the shop with PDB and he grabber a rinser too. Oh man does that make bottling day so much easier. PDB avoided all the misery of rising 48 bottles and was raring to go when I arrived to help him bottle his first batch Friday evening.